Former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami (rtd), has disclosed that the problem with the nation’s judiciary is the embodiment of dishonourable people as judge.
Salami, who was the chairman at the 10th Chief Gani Fawehinmi’s memorial lecture tagged ‘Fawehinmism’, orgainsed by the Ikeja branch of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) yesterday said dishonourable people had found themselves as judge in the judiciary system.
“The problem with the Nigerian judiciary is that some dishonourable people who are not fit to be judges get into the stream and then make it to the highest level of the judicial career,” he said.
According to him, the problem with the judiciary will remain unresolved or even compounded for a long time because Nigerians do not want truth to be told.
Salami said part of the sins he committed was his ability to resist all temptations to be influenced by anybody in dispensing justice.
He said he wished the NBA would have the will and capacity to implement the recommendations of the Okpoto committee that carried out the investigation into the Sokoto State governorship tussle case which led to his travails.
Meanwhile, speaking on the topic “Nigeria at Centenary, a Nation Under Bondage?” at the lecture, a former Governor of the old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and Pastor Tunde Bakare of The Latter Rain Assembly, differed on the convening of the proposed national conference in the country.
Bakare, who was the guest lecturer, described opponents of the conference as “selfish and self-focused” individuals, adding that the conference would be an opportunity for Nigerians to return to the dialogue table with the aims of renegotiating and restructuring the country.
He urged Nigeria’s statesmen to work towards the success of the conference instead of focusing on the 2015 general election.
“If we do not do the needful in 2014, there may be no 2015. If we dedicate ourselves to restructuring our nation at this opportune time, the outcome will be the emergence of credible leadership that will ensure a Nigeria that works,” Bakare said.
On his part, Musa said President Goodluck Jonathan was part of the problems confronting the country, stressing that the conference was a waste of time and resources.
“Any conference conducted by this government will not achieve anything. President Jonathan is part of our problems in this country and that is why we are against it,” he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman of NBA, Ikeja Branch, Mr. Onyekachi Ubani, said Fawehinmi fought and died for the dream of a better Nigeria.
Ubani said the national conference, planned for February 2014, is another opportunity to restructure the country to achieve the dream of its founding fathers.
By Akinwale Akintunde
THIS DAY
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